


An Introduction To Accounting, For Communist Firbolgs

by capripian



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Bud POV, Bud's struggle with math, Gen, Nightmares, and dudes being pals, and just his cultural differences in general, and roomies supporting roomies, just guys being bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 14:03:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21495481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/capripian/pseuds/capripian
Summary: He was having a rough time of it, accounting. He found himself frustrated, unable to think. The clanging and clattering in his skull was driving him insane. He had to finish this remedial homework somehow, but these numbers just did not make any sense.
Relationships: Bud & Argo Keene & Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt
Comments: 24
Kudos: 210





	An Introduction To Accounting, For Communist Firbolgs

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y'all! I love graduation, and I love the firbolg, and that is all I have to say!

He blinked. He could not figure out this question. Bartholemus had given him a sheet of remedial problems to help his accounting skills, but he could not even parse this _ ridiculous _ amount of… false language. It claimed to be common, which he had spent so long perfecting, practicing with the townsfolk on his journey, but it was not. None of it was the twenty-six familiar letters, he had scratched in the dirt as a bud, proud to have learned though it was a few days after the others did. He missed the others. Then again, he didn’t deserve to miss them. He didn’t deserve to miss any of them, after what had happened. He was as low as the dirt they walked on, and right now his punishment was to do this _ stupid _ accounting that he would _ never _ understand, and it was fucking hell. He groaned, putting his head in his hands. 

At least his roommates weren’t here with him. Sir Fitzroy was at the dining hall, petitioning for sweet crêpes. At least, that was what Fitz said. He had a feeling Fitzroy just went to hang out with Argo, there on another one of his numerous scurvy runs. Bud did not understand this.. _ Scurvy. _

Despite the absence of his new friends, he found he could not focus. His brow furrowed as he looked at the sheet of paper. ‘_ x + 4 = 12’. _ Some of these words felt familiar. He knew ‘x’, that was a letter in common. He had written it out so many times, the thin stick clumsy in his large paws. He had a passing familiarity with the numbers, too. They had been taught to count in his clan, of course. _ Fuck _ . Not his clan, not anymore. He was undeserving of that honor, to belong. He looked back at the problem. What was this cross symbol? What were these two lines? He did not understand any of the mathematical nonsense. It did not make any sense. How could a letter befriend a number like that? Why was there a different number following? Did they have a relation to each other? He had so many questions, but no one to ask. He felt so fucking _ stupid _. In the wilds, he never felt this way. He felt in control, like he knew what he was doing. He felt like he knew everything of the forest, and everything knew him. He felt seen. These problems… they did not see him. They did not know him. 

He made the mistake of looking further down the page, coming across fill-ins with real letters. However, these words were odd and foreign on his tongue as he tried them out. What was this… trade economy? What was interdependent trade? He did not know. He did not understand why they could not all simply share with each other. _ Having _ seemed entirely unnecessary to happiness. 

This… this was too much. He would have to talk to the owl about this. He did not understand these terms, and this concept of _ money. _ What use was this small piece of gold to anyone? You could not eat it. You could not build from it. It was… _ frivolous _, to assign such value and honor to a simple stone. Absolutely ridiculous.

His head hurt. He rubbed his temples and sighed out one big, deep sigh. It was a sigh full of all of the annoyance he felt for the course, and all of the feeling like he didn’t belong. It made the stuffy air even stuffier, however. He did not like the air here. In the forest, he could take a breath of air and it would have the same energy as all the life around him. Cool, crisp, fresh. The air here was… too hot, and it had the energy of all the sweaty students. He was not exempt from that group. His fur made him more suited to the cold climes where he grew up, places where the snow was on the ground almost all year. Far from here in Wiggenstaff’s, where classes rose to the boiling point during the summer months. 

The worst was the test tavern. He went in there the other day with Argo while Fitzroy got his? Magic crab?? He was unsure on the details. The test tavern was a place he did not much enjoy, however. Its crowds were too thick for him to walk amongst them comfortably, and the chairs were all a bit too small for his bulk. The worst part was the _ noise, _ the chattering of the tavern’s folk as they went about their business. He could feel it ringing in his ears every time he came there, and it persisted, irritating, until he found himself overwhelmed and had to leave. 

All in all, he just felt… tired. He ran his hands through his hair, feeling them catch on its thick curls, and dropped them to the desk, his head following close behind. He had to do his work by tomorrow, but he just felt… exhausted. And he had plenty of time… so what would it matter if he… just...fell…asleep. 

He was in his forest and he was home. The birds sang to him, welcomed him. A doe came forth, and stood alongside him. His clan came and stood in front of him. He saw his young siblings, his parents, the elders. They all beckoned him closer, but when he walked toward them a force blocked his path. A large tree appeared suddenly before him, branches gnarled, bark blackened. It loomed over him, and from its hollow came a squirrel. He tried to reach out to it, but when he touched the squirrel he felt an odd sensation at his fingertips. He looked down, and his hand had been turned to gold. He tried to run past the tree, towards his clan, but they grew angry as his forearms solidified. He had no choice but to watch them all jeer at him. "Betrayer!" "Desecrator!" "Fool!" "Bud!" Wait... "Bud?" That sounded like… oh. He woke up.

"Bud? You were asleep." It was Argo, Fitzroy right behind him. They had come back. 

He pushed himself back upright, shaking his hair out of his eyes as he looked at his roommates. Fitzroy's crab was sitting on his shoulder, and Argo smelled of grapefruit. They felt… familiar. Fitzroy picked up his accounting paper from the desk, squinting at it through his (fake) glasses.

"Oh, are you taking accounting? I tried to take that at Clyde Nite's Night Knight School- I went there, if you remember-" "I do." "And they wouldn't let me take it! They said it wasn't appropriate for my level! They said _ I- _ Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt, Knight in Absentia to the realm of Goodcastle, wasn't good enough to take accounting." Fitzroy huffed, putting the work back and leaning against the post of his double bed.

"Wow, Sir Mcelroy-"

"Not my name."

"_ You _weren't allowed to take accounting? That must be a high level class, huh?", said Argo, sitting on his bunk. He saw the twinkle in his roommates' eyes. He knew what they were doing.

"I came from a place very different from here… I do not understand these terms." At his words, the others crowded around his desk, looking at the work the owl had left him. They spent the whole night explaining it to him, not giving up hope when he didn’t. When he got a concept, they cheered him on. They didn't tease him for not knowing something so obvious. When he finished the whole sheet, his roommates- no, that wasn't quite right. His _friends_ celebrated it, complimenting him on his work well-done. He smiled as he lay down on the floor. Though the stone floors were cold, his heart felt warm.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this, leave a comment or a kudos!


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